1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an S.O.S. (“Save Our Ship”, e.g. emergency) cover opening and shutting apparatus for a portable terminal, capable of allowing a user to access an emergency call service, or an S.O.S. service.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a variety of functions have been added to portable terminals to meet various demands of users. In particular, the multimedia functions for delivering image data as well are currently the most popular—and include such functions as e-mail, Internet, games and the like based on portable terminals—which are also added/updated on a regular basis.
Such portable terminals periodically communicate with a base station in the area where they are presently located, to inform/update the base station of their current locations, thereby enabling calls to be seamlessly received. When the portable terminals are relocated by vehicles or walking, the portable terminals often switch communication from the current base station to a new base station in the area to which they are going to move, if the relocation crosses into an area better handled by a new/different base station.
In our very complex and free society, users of portable terminals can be exposed to many dangers. For example, many emergency situations may happen, in which users are threatened, injured, kidnapped by suspicious fellows, meet with a disaster by a fire or lost in the mountains, or are locked in airtight spaces, just to name a few of the potential dangers that are the subject of media reporting. Conventionally, when these emergency situations occur, the users of portable terminals generally make a call directly using the portable terminals to inform an acquaintance, police, a relief squad or the like of the emergency situations. In most cases, however, the users may have difficulty in making a call in the emergency situations to inform the emergency situations. For example, in the United States, dialing 911 from a wireless telephone will generally forward your call to an emergency center closest to a particular base station. However, the system is not perfect and sometimes the closest emergency responders are not the ones notified via the 911 system.
Many portable terminals now enable users to notify responders of their emergency situation/status to a previously registered portable terminal(s) by manipulating an input means such as an emergency button provided on the portable terminals when crimes or emergency disasters happen. In this case, however, an unnecessary S.O.S. service may occasionally be activated by user's mismanipulation. Then, a user of the portable terminal receiving the unnecessary call or message may be placed into a difficult situation, which may give an unpleasant feeling to the user of the receiving portable terminal. In addition, one might say they accidentally pushed the button because an assailant is threatening them with immediate bodily harm unless they lie to the responder and say that the activation of the button was an accident.
Therefore, the conventional portable terminal has limitations on the environments in which the user can inform a responder of an emergency situation, and thus, the user may have difficulty in asking surrounding people for a help without mismanipulation.